Song: "A Postcard Would Be Nice"
Artist: No Use For A Name
Album: "Making Friends"
Year: 1997
Usually when I do my "Song Of The Week" post, I get into a little bit of what the song is about and then go into a bit of the history of the band and what not. This week's post is different. This week's post is a way to pay homage to No Use For A Name's frontman/guitarist Tony Sly who passed away a few short days ago. "A Postcard Would Be Nice" probably isn't No Use's best song, it's just my favorite song by them. I remember the first time I heard it, it instantly got me fired up!! Just a great skate punk anthem. There's something to be said for the band's you grow up liking say from the age of fifteen to about twenty-five. It's almost like you form some sort of bond with them. Every generation has bands or music that defines it. Yeah, I love the old bands that were before my time like The Who and The Beatles. And I also love newer bands like The Gaslight Anthem. But from 1995 to 2002, No Use For A Name was the band that me and my friends owned. By that, I mean this was OUR music. Our generation. They weren't hugely popular, though they did get a boost during the punk revival of the mid-90's. As we were growing up, going from teenagers to young adults, No Use provided our soundtrack. The four albums they dropped between 1995 and 2002, "Leche Con Carne", "Making Friends", "More Betterness!" and "Hard Rock Bottom", were, in my opinion, punk classics. Some of my favorite songs ever, to this day still. "Soulmate", "The Answer Is Still No", "A Postcard Would Be Nice", "International You Day", "Let Me Down", "Straight From The Jacket" and "Invincible", just to name a few. With the tragic news of Tony Sly's passing, i've definitely been dusting off the band's cd's and thinking back to my youth. Thinking about the good times we had with No Use playing the soundtrack. Thinking about all the times we've seen No Use live in and around the Boston area. Thinking about two shows in particular, one at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA on September 30, 1999 where No Use opened for the Dance Hall Crashers and me and my buddy Tommy actually met Tony outside the club and got to shake hands and shoot the shit with our musical hero. Another was at The Met Cafe in Providence, RI on February 18, 2000. Me and my friend Jay drove from Boston to Providence to see this show during a blizzard!! It took forever to get down there because of the white out conditions, but it was No Use and that's what you do to see your band!! When we finally got to The Met, there were probably about 20 or 30 people there. The three other bands that were supposed to open up either didn't make it or came really late. No problem, No Use just jumped up on stage and played a little longer giving the 30 die hards all the bang for their buck that they wanted. So this brings us to the present. It was a total shock when I found out that Tony Sly died. It just came out of nowhere. It's sad because it was his voice and his songs that got you through the years when you were actually finding yourself as a human being. It almost feels like you lost someone that you grew up with. The beautiful thing about music, is you can always go back and take comfort. His songs will always be there. No Use was also working on a new album since 2010, so hopefully the band and Fat Wreck have enough material to release what would be Tony's final work. So there you have it, my little tribute to a punk rock soldier,
R.I.P. Tony Sly (1970-2012)
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